30 October, 2015

Better Than Gold is set around 655
AD in Northumbria (in what is now north-east England) and Mercia (in what is
now the Midlands). The main character, Egfrid, is a historical figure, and his
time as a hostage at the royal court of Mercia is a historical event, although
the details are not known. Other historical figures who feature as important
characters in the novel include King Penda and Queen Cynewise of Mercia and
their children, Egfrid’s father King Oswy of Bernicia and his queen Eanflaeda,
Egfrid’s cousin Ethelwold and the Christian monk Chad (later St Chad, if I have
identified him correctly).

Egfrid,
son of the King of Bernicia, is aged ten when he is taken hostage by Penda,
King of Mercia, in a raid. Mercia and Bernicia are bitter enemies; Penda has
previously slaughtered Egfrid’s paternal uncle and his maternal grandfather and
uncle. Egfrid’s father Oswy has so far escaped a similar fate by avoiding
battle, which leads Penda to despise him as a coward. Unlike the Christian kings
of Bernicia, Penda is a pagan and his religion practices human sacrifice, so
when Egfrid is captured he fears the worst. But his courage and loyalty to his
nursemaid and tutor, both captured with him, earns him Penda’s respect. He
finds himself treated with honour and even kindness, particularly by Penda’s
queen Cynewise, who is working to weave a peace treaty between the kingdoms.
But when the old feud breaks out into war once more, Egfrid is faced with a
dilemma – whose side should he be on?

I enjoyed
Theresa Tomlinson’s mystery novels, Wolf
Girl for young adult readers (review here)
and A Swarming of Bees for adults
(review here), both set
in the Northumbrian royal abbey at Whitby in the seventh century, and her novel
about Acha of Deira set in the late sixth century, The Tribute Bride (review here).
Better Than Gold is a children’s book
set a few years earlier than Wolf Girl
or A Swarming of Bees.

Part
of the inspiration for Better Than Gold
was the discovery of the Staffordshire Hoard near Hammerwich in the territory
of the old kingdom of Mercia in 2009. This is the largest collection of early
English (Anglo-Saxon) precious metalwork ever found, and consists almost
entirely of gold and silver objects associated with military equipment, for
example the decorative fittings from sword hilts and fragments of at least one
helmet. For details of the Staffordshire Hoard, see the official website.
This overwhelming focus on martial items is extremely unusual, as most
Anglo-Saxon precious metalwork consists of dress fittings such as strap-ends,
buckles and brooches, or luxury tableware such as plates or cups, and
immediately suggests that there ought to be a dramatic story behind the
Staffordshire Hoard. How might it have been assembled, who owned it, what did
it signify, why are the items almost all military, who might have buried it,
and why might it have been buried and never recovered?(For a discussion, see my blog post at the time and the associated comments thread).
We will probably never know the answers for sure. In Better Than Gold, Theresa Tomlinson has drawn on an episode
recorded in Bede’s History and the rather enigmatic Restoration of Iudeu
mentioned in Historia Brittonum to
imagine a scenario that might lie behind the hoard.

Better Than Gold also imagines how
life might have been for a ten-year-old noble boy in the society that produced
the Staffordshire Hoard. What would a boy at a royal court eat and wear, what
would he be expected to learn, how would he spend his time? This focus on the
details of daily life was one of the features I liked about The Tribute Bride and A Swarming of Bees, and it was pleasant
to see it again here.

Better Than Gold has the same
gentle tone as The Tribute Bride and A Swarming of Bees. Most of the people,
most of the time, treat each other decently. There is violence – human
sacrifice and battles with many casualties – but because of Egfrid’s age he is
rarely directly involved and most of the violence happens in the background.
Like the author’s other books, the women are very much to the fore. Queen
Cynewise has much authority at the Mercian court, ruling the kingdom while
Penda is away on campaign and exercising considerable influence when he is
back. Their rule of Mercia seems to be very much a joint enterprise. Like Acha
in The Tribute Bride, the royal women
in Better Than Gold play a crucial
role as peaceweavers, both by formal marriage alliance and in the day-to-day
management of court life, ever alert to the need to head off situations where
drink and ego threaten to spark conflict and even war.

Better Than Gold is a much simpler
and shorter story than the young adult mystery Wolf Girl. I’d estimate its length at around 20,000–25,000 words,
roughly a quarter of the length of a ‘standard’ adult novel. I would guess it
is aimed at a younger audience, perhaps about the same age as the ten-year-old
protagonist. The complex political rivalries and feuds between the various
kingdoms are seen mainly in family terms – appropriately, since the conventions
of blood-feud and vengeance for a kinsman meant that early English warfare
could have a personal as well as a political dimension. It’s clearly written in
straightforward modern English, with some archaic terms to add a period
flavour, such as the Old English names for the months (Blood-month,
Offerings-month, etc. More information on the Old English calendar and the
month-names can be found in my article here).
I was pleased to see that the original Old English personal names have been
kept, e.g. Egfrid, Cynewise. Some names have been replaced by nicknames to
avoid potential confusion between similar names within a family, e.g. Egfrid’s
dead uncle Oswald is referred to by his (historically documented) nickname of
Whiteblade to avoid confusion with his brother Oswy.

A
short Author’s Note at the end briefly outlines some of the underlying history and
provides a link to learn more about the Staffordshire Hoard. Unfortunately
there’s no map on which a reader could follow Egfrid’s travels, although as
most of the place names are given in their modern forms (Bamburgh rather than
Bebbanburgh, Tamworth rather than Tameworthig) they could be identified on a
modern map.

Charming
tale about life at the royal courts of seventh-century England and the sort of
events that might lie behind the burial of the magnificent Staffordshire Hoard.

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About Me

I'm a scientist with an interest in history, particularly the history of Britain in the 5th-10th centuries AD (i.e. between the departure of Rome and the Norman invasion).
I write scientific journal articles, for which I get paid, and historical and fantasy fiction, for which I don't. I'm a keen hillwalker, though I live in the flatlands of East Anglia.
I'm a devotee of BBC Radio 4, the network that justifies the license fee all by itself.
Carla Nayland is a pen name.